Ep 62: Claim Your Self-Care and Speak Your Desires with Elena Lipson

In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m releasing episodes each week in the month of May that I will think will help us pause from the busyness and prioritize and invest in ourselves. I found a powerful guide for this purpose in Elena Lipson, someone I met through another mentor and coach of mine, Lindsay Pera, who beautifully dedicated this episode.

As a retreat leader, speaker, writer, coach and podcaster, Elena inspires women to redefine the hustle in exchange for creating a life they love with what she calls the Feminine Metrics of success: Pleasure, Play, Ease, Grace and Trusting Your Own Pace.

In this conversation, we explore Elena’s journey from a life that began in Russia to one based today in the fresh air of the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over 19 years and their teenage son Miles. 

The best adjective I could think of to describe this conversation is “juicy” filled with so much goodness, insights, and examples for how to connect to our bodies, speak our desires, and lean into presence and inquiry instead of assumption... with ourselves, our children and our partners. 

In fact, toward the end of the conversation, we begin to explore how we can keep the “pilot light” burning in our romantic relationships, so if you’re listening with children around, you may want to put in some earbuds. 

I left this conversation recommitted to building presence in my life, with greater awareness of the importance of body, heart, gut, and brain alignment, and excited to explore Elena’s challenge to us to get in touch with what we really want and then to ask for it.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did and that it sparks a shift in you, as it did me, to claim our self-care and speak our desires. 

Much appreciation,

P.S. As you'll hear in the episode, Elena agreed to share more on the topic of "Movement and Pleasure" through a presentation in the Mother's Quest Facebook Group. Check out the resources below to get access to that recorded session with Elena!

P.S.S.Know someone who would love this conversation? Click forward now to pay this forward to a friend who may be interested.

This Episode is Dedicated by:
Lindsay Pera

Lindsay's corporate career encompasses management consulting, financial services, and technology. She began her career as an analyst in Accenture’s technology strategy practice and then transitioned to a $2 billion insurance company to help drive pivotal IT transformation.  In 2004 she left Silicon Valley and moved with her family to a beautiful multi-generational homestead on the Central Coast of California.

Lindsay wants to live in a world where appreciation flows freely, kids play outdoors and lemons are in season year round. As a Mystic mama, tech entrepreneur and intuitive strategist she's a sought after contributor and motivator on all topics health, wealth and transformation.

When she is not extolling the virtues of “Sacred Commerce” or “Resonance” based business, you can find her knocking almonds and generally getting her gratitude on.

Lindsay's new paradigm business community, The Mystic’s Society, is a safe haven for entrepreneurs weaving magic into their *work* in the world. It is her passion to direct resources into the hands of entrepreneurs, creatives, and world changers.

Find out more about Lindsay's private consulting at Lindsaypera.com, access resources at  www.fullcirclewellnesstools.com or join in the magic at the MysticSociety.com.

Learn more about the Simply Sacred Co. and The Sacred CEO Retreat, a collaborative venture between Lindsay, Elena, and their partner Celia Ward-Wallace at the links below: 

www.thesacredceo.com

The Simply Sacred Co. Facebook

The Sacred CEO Retreat on November 9-13, 2019

In This Episode We Talk About:

• Claiming your voice and speaking your truth and desires

• The “Rubberband moments” that move us out of the present moment into the past or future and cut off the golden opportunities that arrive when we’re present

• Key lessons that Elena learned engaging with her son while she was homeschooling him

• Elena’s “Magic Morning Practice,” for which she has an upcoming challenge, to align your head, heart, and gut with what you want to do in all areas of your life

• Our bodies as our navigational compass and how it affects the decisions we make

• How movement and particularly Zumba helps Elena feel connected and energized

• Realizing that we’re not here to change anyone else but we’re here to evolve ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually

• My story of using movement, presence, inquiry and releasing expectation to help my son during a challenging moment

• How we can all start to listen to our own inner landscape

• The power of presence and pleasure to keep our “pilot light” burning in our romantic relationships

Resources and Topics Mentioned:

• Elena Lipson's website

• Meditations & Musings with Elena Lipson

• Episode 8: Prioritize your pleasure

• Episode 67: Pleasure is your birthright and the G-spot is a myth

• Elizabeth Gilbert article on leaning into curiosity instead of passion

• Episode where I shared about my Elizabeth Gilbert experience

• Episode with my podcast guest Julie Lythcott-Haims where I promised to explore the impact of peri-menopause and menopause on intimacy with our partners.

This Week’s Challenge: 

Elena invites us to find the “hidden secret” right in front of us, by getting present with what we really want and asking for it. I added a commitment to making a list of what those things are. 

Learn More About Elena:

As a retreat leader, speaker, writer, coach and podcaster, Elena loves to work with busy women and inspire them to redefine the hustle in exchange for creating a life they love with the Feminine Metrics of success: Pleasure, Play, Ease, Grace and Trusting Your Own Pace.

Through her speaking, writing, retreats, and online programs, Elena wants to help busy women drop the hurry mindest and become the #1 asset in life, business, and the bedroom.

Elena Lipson has lived in Russia, NYC, California and today happily enjoys the green trees and fresh air of the Pacific Northwest with her husband over 19 years and their son Miles.

Signature Offerings include:

The Divine Self-Care Circle,

66 Sacred Rituals,

and most recently,

The Meditations & Musings Podcast

Sign up for Elena's 5 Day Magic Morning Makeover - starts May 18th. 

You can find Elena’s writing in Tiny Buddha, Huffington Post, Business Rocks Magazine, Business Heroine Magazine, and Coco Eco Magazine.

www.elenalipson.com

Announcements:

Join the Manifesto Challenge

In honor of Mother’s Day, I kicked off a five day Mother’s Quest Manifesto Challenge in the private Facebook group.
More about the inspiration behind the challenge in my episode with Graeme Seabrook.

Each day, I’ll share a reflective prompt to help you claim the next chapter in your life and I’ll host a different mother, including Graeme, who will share their stories and their #oneminutemommanifesto for inspiration. 

Join us live in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, from May 13th to the 17th. But, the prompts and replays will remain forever so it's never too late to come on over and participate. 

Watch the Replay of Movement, Motherhood, and the Power of Pleasure

Click here to access the replay

Spark Your E.P.I.C. Year

Anyone else feel like they need a spring reset to their year? 

A few months ago, we declared February the new January and facilitated a Mother's Quest Workshop/Virtual Milestone Hike experience to help us all start again.

Using photos from my favorite local hike, I took a small group on a virtual journey to:

✨Reflect on our last chapter (as we ascend) 
✨Decide what we want to release (using an image of a big bad bonfire!) and what we want to carry forward
✨Then, set intentions along the E.P.I.C. guideposts for our new chapter. 

There’s a special planning sheet we created to guide you and help you document the whole process. 

🌟Truthfully, we can start fresh any time we choose.🌟

If you decide you want to reset and begin again, today, this afternoon or this weekend, using this experience and worksheet to support you. Just sign up here.

Join me on my #100dayproject Journey

I’m doing Lindsay Jean Thomson’s #100dayproject and decided to record 100 stories about the making of Mother’s Quest on my Mother’s Quest Bite-sized Reflections on Living an E.P.I.C. Life Podcast (an unedited sister podcast to my interview show.) Releasing perfectionism, I realized a few days in, these 100 episodes won't be consecutive, but I'll get to 100 still! There are almost a dozen recorded now and I'd love for you to tune in!

Follow Mother’s Quest on Anchor and join the #100dayproject!

Acknowledgments:

A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support:

Lindsay Pera
Julie Castro Abrams
Alexia Vernon
Brooke Markevicius
Democracy Clothing
Michael Skolnik
Helgi Maki
Kari Azuma
Tamara Sobomehin
Katie Krimitsos
Carrie Caulfield Arick
Rachel Rosen
Chandra Brooks
Jen Simon
Monisha Vasa
Celia Ward-Wallace
Vanessa Couto
Desiree Adaway
Rachel Steinman
Katie Hanus
Denise Barreto 
Sage B. Hobbs 
Samantha Nolan-Smith
Jody Smith
Emily Cretella
Collette Flanagan
Titilayo Tinubu Ali 
Carly Magnus Hurt
Lizzy Russinko 
Suzanne Brown
Mara Berns Langer
Mallory Schlabach 
Katharine Earhart
Jessica Kupferman
Jen Jenkins Dohner
Genese Harris
Tonya Rineer
Liane Louie-Badua
Cristin Downs 
Erin Kendall 
Niko Osoteo 
Erik Newton 
Claire Fry
Divya Silbermann
Rachel Winter
Caren and Debbie Lieberman
Cameron Miranda
Fran and David Lieberman
Debbie and Alan Goore
The Sustainable Living Podcast

Support the Podcast

If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Three of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution.

If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at [email protected]

Mother's Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.

Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C).

Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/